


The Not-So-Universal Translator

by DanceWithMeForScience



Category: Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: 32nd Century, Babel Trek Open Project (Star Trek), M/M, Post-Season/Series 02, Universal Translator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-03
Updated: 2020-02-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:34:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22547848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DanceWithMeForScience/pseuds/DanceWithMeForScience
Summary: The USS Discovery takes shore leave in the 32nd century, only to discover that universal translator technology has advanced quite a bit in the last 930 years.
Relationships: Hugh Culber/Paul Stamets
Comments: 6
Kudos: 68
Collections: The Babel Trek Open Project





	The Not-So-Universal Translator

**Author's Note:**

> This story assumes that UT technology developed much slower than depicted in Star Trek, and that by the time of Discovery, it’s only slightly more advanced than today’s smartphone translation technology.

Saru looks around at the assembled staff of Discovery, now just 60 of them, crowded into Discovery’s largest workout room.

“As discussed, station leave will be taken on rotation, and you all should have your schedules from Commander Burnham. Please contact us immediately if you notice anything… out of the ordinary.” He clicks.

 _It’s a Trill space station, how unusual could it be?_ Hugh squeezes Paul’s hand. “After all this time, it’ll be nice to just relax for a couple days.”

Paul smiles at him, that familiar warm affectionate smile that Hugh can’t get enough of now.

When they walk off the ship into the docking bay an hour later, however, Hugh finds himself immediately perplexed.

“Atención, por favor,” a station announcement begins. “Atención, por favor. Se dejó una tableta en un restaurante en el patio central...”

“That's so weird," Hugh remarks as he follows Paul out of the bay and down the hall, following the excited cluster of faster-moving Discovery crew. "I didn't know Spanish was the default language of this station."

“¿Qué quieres decir?” Paul says with some consternation.

“Paul, you’re speaking Spanish.”

“Sabes que no hablo español.”

Hugh comes to an abrupt halt. “Say that again?” he asks, grabbing Paul’s upper arm. “Look at me.”

“No hablo español,” comes Paul’s voice, his mouth clearly moving to say “I don’t speak Spanish” just a second before another vocalization wipes out his words.

“You’re speaking Spanish to me. Well, it’s not you, I see you speaking English, but I hear you speaking Spanish! What the hell is going on?”

“¿Es un virus, tal vez? ¿Estás bien?” His partner’s eyebrows arch worriedly, and he reaches for Hugh’s hand.

“I’d love it if you really spoke Spanish to me, Paul, but this is creepy.” Hugh raises his voice to catch the attention of their friends up ahead. “Is anyone else hearing me in a different language?”

Joann breaks away from Keyla and hurries back to him. “Te oyo hablar yoruba,” comes her lightly-accented Spanish, her lips moving in the English words, “I hear you speaking Yoruba.” She squints at his lips. “Pero hablas inglés. Keyla me habla yoruba también. ¿Qué pasa?”

“I hear you speaking Spanish!” Hugh exclaims. He fumbles for his communicator. “Culber to Discovery. Something strange is going on here. Owosekun hears me in Yoruba, and I hear Paul - Stamets speaking Spanish! But we’re all actually speaking English.”

“Comandante, gracias, investigamos. Un momento, por favor,” Saru says.

A buzz of conversation starts up as the rest of the shore leave group comes back to discuss the problem animatedly. The fact that it’s all in Spanish would normally would be comforting, but instead he feels a headache coming on. They’re supposed to be enjoying their first real break in ages. He leans against the gray paneled corridor wall, squeezing Paul’s hand. To his credit, Paul detects Hugh’s mood and waits quietly alongside him.

After a few minutes, Michael’s voice rings out from down the hall, “Computadora, desactive la traducción de idiomas para toda la tripulación del USS Discovery.” A two-toned chime sounds, and she smiles. “Is that better?”

“Oh, thank God,” Hugh says, letting go of Paul’s hand to rub at his eyes and then his temples.

Michael comes forward into their little group, explaining, “It seems that they have developed near-simultaneous translation in the 32nd century. When we sent them a crew manifest, we included everyone’s primary and secondary languages, and they set the translators to automatically set all audio to your first language. They use our communicators -” she holds hers up “-to help localize simulated voices using holographic technology.”

Hugh and Paul look at each other in amazement.

“If you like the simultaneous translation, you can re-enable it by talking to the computer. Otherwise, you’ll need to use your padds as usual for two-way translation.”

“Thank you, Michael,” Hugh says. She gives him a sympathetic look as she moves forward to talk with Keyla.

“The computing power required to project voices like that…” Paul shakes his head. “Reno is going to have a ball trying to figure this place out.” He smiles gently and leans in to kiss Hugh on the cheek. “But all I want is to go try every new kind of food on this station with you.”

The warmth of Paul’s affection begins to win over Hugh’s anxiousness. “I hope you’re up for listening to 32nd century opera too,” he teases.

Paul grins mischievously. “I’ll turn translation back on for that. If I understand what they’re saying, it _might_ be tolerable.”

Hugh bumps his shoulder. “Te amo.”

“Te amo también, mi querido doctor.”

Hugh eyes him worriedly. _Not again!_ “Paul?”

“I _have_ been practicing a little,” he says defensively, still smiling. “Now. Did you know there is a Bolian restaurant here?”

**Author's Note:**

> I used a combination of my own knowledge of Spanish and some help from Google Translate for all the Spanish parts, if you have a correction on my language, let me know!


End file.
